In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.

The enigmatic Saturnian moon Titan is still yielding surprising new details years after scientists first pierced its thick haze veil. The vision now emerging of Saturn's largest moon, with its giant dunes and oceanless surface, is perhaps a glimpse of Earth's desert future.

An upcoming report in the journal Planetary and Space Science proposes new criteria by which planets should be defined this time adding atmosphere to the mix and this incarnation would restore poor Pluto to its former glory.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is on course to zip by gigantic Jupiter early next year. Engineers and scientists are plotting out an agenda of at-Jupiter investigations. Thanks to high-tech instruments onboard the craft, new looks at the gas giant are slated, as are views of several moons circling the planet.

The European Space Agency's lunar-orbiting craft called SMART-1 has completed the first detailed chemical mapping of the lunar surface. The detected chemicals give a boost to the longstanding theory that the Moon formed from the debris flung into space after a collision between early Earth and a Mars-size planet.

A strikingly simple concept would provide efficient water provisions for human outposts/bases on the moon. The idea is to repeatedly clobber our already crater-rich neighbor with tons of water ice to establish an "anywhere, anytime" delivery system.

While NASA struggles to return humans to the moon, scientists and engineers in labs across the country are letting their imaginations run free in designing hardware for far more distant exploration of the solar system. The vehicles may look more like insects or ping-pong balls than rockets.

Recent findings from NASA's Cassini spacecraft and new discoveries about organisms here on Earth that thrive in extreme conditions are causing scientists to rethink the possibility that there may be life on Saturn's cloudy moon Titan. Several of the key elements crucial for life on Earth are also present on Titan.

New images of Uranus show more diversity in cloud features than ever seen before.The images, from the Keck Telescope in Hawaii, give insight into the enigmatic weather in the solar system, researchers said today at a meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society.